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Despite two full days of bargaining between ICEM affiliate, the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA), and the New Tyre Manufacturing Employers&rsquo; Industry Association (NTMEIA) on 16-17 September, no accord was reached to end the three-week old strike. Some 6,000 rubber workers have been on strike at six tyre factories operated by four employers since 29 August. 
 
Today in Port Elizabeth, 4,000 NUMSA members from tyre plants in the Eastern Cape will march in protest of rapt division among employers in this year&rsquo;s wage talks. They will present a petition to management at the plant gates of Bridgestone-Firestone in Port Elizabeth this afternoon.
In last week&rsquo;s talks guided by an independent mediator in Port Elizabeth, management of the Japanese-based company continued to deviate widely from the wage offers put forth by other tyre companies associated with the NTMEIA. While Continental, Goodyear, and Apollo-Dunlop of India placed on the table a three-year package containing wage increases of 9%, 7.5%, and 7.5%, Bridgestone-Firestone&rsquo;s offer was 7%, 5%, and 5%. 
 
Rubber workers of NUMSA are willing to accept a three-year pact, but their wage expectations are 9% in each of the three years. In addition, they seek a modernized wage module that will lift the salaries of workers who have been stuck at minimum levels for as long as 10 to 15 years. 
 
Another key issue at the bargaining table revolves around the use of labour brokers. Although the NTMEIA will not agree to a ban, it has conceded to pay contributions for short-term and temporary workers into the Provident Fund, as well as make retirement and medical payments for them. The South African tyre industry employs about 1,000 such workers.
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Also last week in South Africa, 70,000 NUMSA members across the country returned to their jobs at fuel retail outlets and auto component shops. On 14 September, NUMSA convened a special National Executive Committee meeting, where eight of nine regional structures of the union agreed to accept terms of the Retail Industry Motor Association and the Fuel Retailers&rsquo; Association, ending strikes that began on 1 September. 
 
The three-year contract for filling station attendants includes wage gains of 10%, 9%, and 8%, while auto-parts workers will receive 9%, 8%, and 8%. NUMSA did achieve a solid breakthrough regarding labour brokers, particularly in these sectors in which several employers are totally reliant on staff provided by outside hire firms. 
 
The agreement calls for all labour brokers to be registered by one of two certifying agencies, and all staff of labour brokers must receive minimum rates of pay inside the two industries as well as getting the same benefits and condition of employment. In addition, the negotiated settlement calls for the gradual phase-out of labour brokers, with a cut to 35% of current levels by the year 2013.

South African Tyre Strike Continues; Mass March Slated Today Against Bridgestone

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Coal-mining unions from Germany, Hungary, Poland, and Spain agreed last week in unity to ask the European Commission to extend its deadline for the elimination of state subsidies on the production of coal. Last spring, the Commission moved to eliminate completely any Member State from granting coal subsidies to coal-fired generating plants after 31 December 2010, but that was amended slightly in July to give a very limited extension of certain subsidies until 2014. 
 
German union IGBCE last week conducted a unity tour together with Works Council leaders of the country&rsquo;s coal producer, RAG, to Hungary, Poland, and Spain. What they found was undivided consensus that the sudden curtailment of state subsidies at year end will create social conflicts, much like what is now occurring in Spain.
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Hungarian Mining &amp; Energy Union, BDSZ&nbsp;
 
The trade unions of the coal-producing countries, IGBCE, NSZZ Solidarność of Poland, the Mining and Energy Workers&rsquo; Union BDSZ of Hungary, and mining and energy unions of both Spanish federations, UGT and CC.OO, pledged to work through their respective governments to change the Commission&rsquo;s current policy. 
 
&ldquo;The regulation proposal helps neither the coal-producing countries of Germany, Poland, Spain, and Hungary, nor the non coal-producing countries of the European Union,&rdquo; stated IGBCE President Michael Vassiliadas, who led the travel delegation. &ldquo;The subsidies do not create unfair competition in the EU. In comparison to the little that is gained in environmental protection, more (social costs) will be lost due to imported coal replaced domestic coal,&rdquo; said Vassiliadas.
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IGBCE President Michael Vassiliadas&nbsp;
Further, the unions claim that revoking the subsidies is counter-production to jobs creation coming out of the financial crisis. Coal accounts for 30% of European electricity generation, and 17% of total energy consumption in the EU.

European Mining Unions Reject Commission’s Coal Subsidies Policy

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The ICEM&rsquo;s Sub-Sahara Africa Regional Organisation (SSARO), at its Executive Committee Meeting in Mauritius, 27-28 September, adopted a resolution affirming continued commitment to challenge mining multinational Vale in Africa. &ldquo;SSARO affiliates will oppose all Vale investments in Africa and those of its surrogates until Vale demonstrates a willingness to drop its anti-union behaviour,&rdquo; states the resolution. 
 
The resolution was adopted unanimously by the ICEM African affiliates, building on their commitment of 6 April during the &lsquo;Week of Action on Vale&rsquo; when SSARO&rsquo;s Executive Committee denounced Vale&rsquo;s attacks on workers in Canada and throughout the world, and resolved to oppose the investment of Vale in Africa. 
 
Vale continues hostile demands on workers at Voisey&rsquo;s Bay, Newfoundland, Canada, to accept large concessions and worse terms than those agreed in settling the bitter disputes at Sudbury and Port Colborne. The corporate management of Vale maintains the unacceptable position that they cannot intervene in the dispute, instead settlement must be reached by local management and workers. 
 
The ICEM and the International Metalworkers&rsquo; Federation (IMF) have been fighting a global campaign against Vale&rsquo;s anti-union practices and efforts to spread their intolerable treatment of workers to Africa and throughout the world. 
 
&ldquo;The ICEM affiliates of Africa have shown their strength in unity by confronting the second largest mining company in the world, and refusing their anti-worker practices. We salute them for this and pledge our full continued support to the campaign,&rdquo; stated ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda. 
 
The opposition to Vale in Africa includes the 50/50 joint venture between Vale and African Rainbow Minerals (ARM), a South African mining company that acts as a gateway for Vale to Africa&rsquo;s mineral resources. 
 
Vale has begun construction of the Konkola North Project in Zambia, where the Brazilian multinational plans to invest US$400 in the copper mine. This is strongly opposed by the Mineworkers Union of Zambia (MUZ), who have questioned the legality of the mine&rsquo;s lease. 
 
ICEM affiliates in South Africa, Zambia, Liberia, and Guinea have been at the forefront of opposing Vale expansion. Unions have been informing government officials on Vale&rsquo;s global misconduct, and of their demand that Vale move to settle the dispute at Voisey&rsquo;s Bay before entry of the company is considered. 
 
&ldquo;The global campaign will benefit all mining unions. We cannot allow Vale&rsquo;s practices to be imported into Africa or any other continent for that matter,&rdquo; stated ICEM Director of Industry &amp; Corporate Affairs Joe Drexler. 
 
View the Resolution in its entirety <a href="/index.php?id=25&amp;la=EN&amp;doc=4022">here</a>. 
 
Participants at the meeting approved the joint proposal of the United Steelworkers (USW) to hold a regional meeting on Vale in Africa. In these decisions, SSARO emphasised the importance of closer contact with trade unions in Brazil and Mozambique.

ICEM SSARO Endorses Continued Campaign on Vale

In April 2010, ICEM SSARO unanimously adopted a resolution to oppose the investment in Africa by Vale, the multinational mining giant of Brazil. The purpose was to prevent a global decline in mining labour standards due to the anti-union practices of Vale, throughout the world and particularly in Canada where the company forced over 3,500 miners on strike. 
 
ICEM SSARO also took note that Vale had established a partnership with African Rainbow Minerals (ARM) of South Africa to assist Vale in developing new mines and smelters on the African continent. 
 
Despite representations to the contrary made by Vale and ARM, there is little evidence that Vale has changed its attitudes and behaviour. Even after settling two year-long strikes in Canada, when the United Steelworkers agreed to accept some significant concessions, Vale boasted that it had won a power struggle, instead of trying to rebuild the strained relationship with its employees. Vale refused to settle a third strike in Voisey&rsquo;s Bay, Canada, and is demanding that the largely aboriginal workers accept lower standards than what was agreed at the other sites. 
 
Recently, the ICEM and International Metal Workers (IMF) met with Vale officials in Geneva at the request of the company. Vale called for continued social dialogue with the two global trade union federations. The ICEM and IMF stated that social dialogue can only proceed if Vale demonstrates a willingness to change its policies and practices toward trade unions. 
 
So far, there is no evidence that Vale has changed its policies and practices. 
 
SSARO trade unions in South Africa, Zambia, Liberia and Guinea have been in the forefront of opposing Vale&rsquo;s expansion in Africa and that of its surrogate, ARM. These trade unions have stated clearly that complete respect for trade union, community and environmental rights is a fundamental condition that multinational mining companies must meet to gain access to Africa&rsquo;s riches. Vale has not met this condition. 
 
SSARO hereby reaffirms its opposition to Vale investment in Africa. SSARO affiliates will continue to educate its governments and it citizens of the dangers of allowing Vale to operate in their respective countries and will oppose all Vale investments in Africa and those of its surrogates until Vale demonstrates a willingness to drop its anti-union behaviour. 
 
ICEM SSARO also stressed the critical importance of involving and working more closely with Brazilian trade unions in the effort to stop Vale&rsquo;s export of anti-union practices and to strengthen the position of trade unions wherever Vale operates.

Vale Resolution -- SSARO

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Following an international solidarity campaign, Nike has agreed to pay US$1.5 million to a relief fund for the former employees of two of its Honduran suppliers, Hugger de Honduras and Vision Tex, which closed plants in the Central American country without notice and without paying workers any of the legally-mandated severance payments due them. 
 
Both factories closed in mid-January 2009, without severance payments to approximately 1,800 workers and estimated to total some US$2 million. In addition, Visions Tex failed to pay monies it had committed to paying in December 2008 following a strike, which included the legal entitlement to an annual bonus. The closure occurred just after the formation of a union at the factory. 
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The union representing the workers, the Central General de Trabajadores de Honduras (CGT), the Worker Rights Consortium and the Solidarity Center of the US will jointly oversee the administration of the fund. According to a joint press release by Nike and the CGT, workers will also receive a year&rsquo;s access to the health care system, training, and priority hiring. 
 
This groundbreaking agreement represents a significant step forward in the corporate social responsibility debate, with a major multinational company recognising that it must ensure decent working conditions, and the application of national legislation and international labour standards, for all those from whose labour it profits.

Nike Takes Responsibility for Employer’s Anti-Social Actions

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In February 2005, Mr. Choi, a worker at a subcontracting company of the Ulsan factory of the Hyundai Motors in South Korea, was dismissed for carrying out trade union activities. Mr. Choi had been employed by the subcontractor and stationed at the Ulsan factory since March 2002. 
 
When he was dismissed Mr. Choi, filed an application for remedy to the Labour Relations Commission (LRC) in an administrative lawsuit, claiming that it was an unfair dismissal and that Hyundai Motors, not the subcontracting company, was his real employer. 
 
On 22 July 2010, the Korean Supreme Court ruled that Mr. Choi was an illegal dispatch worker and determined that he, in fact, became a direct employee of Hyundai the day after working two consecutive years. 
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The High Court wrote, &ldquo;Mr. Choi was under the direct human resource (HR) management by the Hyundai Motors after being employed by one of its subcontracting companies. So, it will be assumed that he was a dispatch worker to the Hyundai Motors. Under the Act on the Protection of Dispatch Workers, etc. (Dispatch Worker Act), he should be regarded as a worker employed by the Hyundai Motors from the day after he has worked more than two consecutive years.&rdquo; 
 
Welcoming the groundbreaking ruling, the Korean Metal Workers&rsquo; Federation declared, &ldquo;The ruling puts a brake on discrimination and extortion by employers for non-regular workers. We will request all the employers hiring in-house subcontracted workers including the Hyundai Motors a special round of collective bargaining and also proceed with a series of class action lawsuits gathering dismissed workers, retirees, etc.&rdquo; 
 
The International Metalworkers Federation (IMF) covered this story on 29 July and it can be found <a href="http://www.imfmetal.org/index.cfm?id=622&amp;l=2&amp;cid=23679">here</a>.

Groundbreaking Korean High Court Rule Contract Worker is Worker of Primary Company

Bayo is the General Secretary of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN).
How Prevalent is Contract and Agency Labour and Casualisation in Nigeria? 
 
CAL is increasing and alarmingly taking over Nigeria&rsquo;s Oil and Gas industries. It encompasses various dimensions of precarious work and the worst forms of employment. CAL gives room for unfair labour practices that are repugnant to decent work principles. About 60% of our workforce is now composed of contract and agency workers. Standard, permanent employment is declining. 
 
Is the Issue of Casualisation and Temporary Work Practices a Bigger Problem than it was Before? 
 
The issue is a bigger problem in the Nigeria Oil and Gas Sector now than it was before due to the fact that employers and the government&rsquo;s standpoint is that CAL is now a reality that cannot be wished away. This leaves trade unions with no other option than to tackle the adverse effects of CAL, which are: 
 
&bull; Use of this work practice to replace direct and permanent employment; 
&bull; To adversely change employment forms and conditions, to avoid social responsibilities and obligations which employers circumvent through gaps and inadequacies in our extant laws; 
&bull; To weaken trade union membership, solidarity and relevance, and to prevent union organising and recognition of the collective bargaining principle; 
&bull; It widens the exploitation gaps particularly by user enterprises who prefer to minimise cost and increase profit, at the expense and detriment of labour; 
&bull; It increases workplace discrimination and inequitable terms and conditions of employment; 
&bull; It seriously challenges trade union ability to protect job security; 
&bull; There are conflicts in the definition of employment relationships and the obligations of user enterprises, particularly where laws and employment regulatory agencies do not clarify these issues; 
&bull; And an underlying factor, casualisation and temporary work is a growing phenomenon due to the unemployment situation. Employers are exploiting workers&rsquo; desperation for a means of subsistence for their own profit mongering. 
 
 
What are Differences in Nigeria Regarding Working Conditions Between CAL Workers and Permanent Workers? 
 
Number one, casual and temporary workers are subjected to conditions that are not in accord with the general work conditions in the Oil and Gas Sector. Where CAL workers are lucky and are allowed to organise and bargain collectively, the mandate for negotiation of a collective bargaining agreement is seriously curtailed by the contracts between the contractors and agencies on the one side and by the primary enterprise on the other side. 
 
In addition, these workers are subject to limited or no provisions for basic welfare, pensions and social security, health, safety, security and environmental protection, and other stipulated core ILO conventions. And to cite just one small example, Global Framework Agreements that are signed with Global Union Federations, where functional, are not usually made available and applicable to contract and agency workers. 
 
Any set of negotiations in Nigeria that involves a collective agreement for these workers is prone to grievances, disputes, threats, resistance, and action from labour unions, contractors and agencies, and user enterprises. 
 
What are the Main Ways in which Trade Unions are Supporting Casual and Contract and Agency Labour Workers? 
 
It has become a priority to use union resources and machineries to mobilise support and confront the overall denial that contract and agency workers&rsquo; rights have not right to organise and bargain collectively. We are doing this through increases levels of sensitisation through mobilisations, campaigns, solidarity actions, protests, rallies, pickets, strikes, media work, mediation, conciliation, arbitration, and litigation. 
 
We now have the task of entrenching the more effective and protective organising and collective bargaining strategies for contract and agency workers, with financial and organisation support from our union&rsquo;s Union Solidarity Reserve fund, from organisations like the ICEM, Friedrich-Ebert Foundation of Germany, and the US Solidarity Center. 
 
We are constantly implementing union resolutions, directives, and decisions in the area of campaigns, lobbying, engagements, and advocacy for contract and agency workers&rsquo; issues. 
 
Which Ways Do You Feel the ICEM&rsquo;s Global Campaign on CAL can be Helpful and Most Effective in Confronting the Challenges of CAL in Nigeria&rsquo;s Oil and Gas Sector? 
 
The Global CAL Campaign of the ICEM must use donors&rsquo; resources and mechanisms to mobilise support and confront resistance to full rights of contract and agency workers to organise and bargain collectively. The ICEM must increase awareness of the CAL situation, by all possible means, and it must effectively implement the Campaign through communication, engagement and evaluation, and correcting deviations/gaps in the global campaign strategies. 
PENGASSAN&rsquo;s best hope is that the ICEM will carry out advocacy and lobbying for fair labour policies and laws which are favourable to contract and agency workers, as to campaign for best practices in dealing with employment and working conditions issues relating to this most serious issue.

Interview: Bayo Olowoshile, PENGASSAN General Secretary

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Last Spring, trade unions of the Netherlands and the Dutch Association of Temporary Work Agencies, Algemene Bond Uitzendondernemingen (ABU), agreed to an across-the-board 1% wage increase for all temporary workers in the country. 
 
An increase of 0.5% took effect on 5 July and a further 0.5% increase will be awarded on 3 January 2011. The 1% wage increase granted to the employees was based on the average of increases taken from a selection of 30 collective agreements in other sectors. 
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Marcel Nuyten, Director Temp Workers, FNV Bondgenoten
The agreement was reached between the ABU, the ICEM-affiliated FNV Bondgenoten and CNV Dienstenbond, the executives&rsquo; union, and LBV, an independent union. An agreement was also reached whereby wages may be increased every year on 1 July, amending the Collective Employment Agreement for Temporary Employees 2009 &ndash; 2014. 
 
The Collective Employment Agreement, which can be found <a href="http://www.abu.nl/abu2/?fileid=14231">here</a>, stipulates conditions which must apply to temporary agency workers, including the relationships between the worker, agency, and user enterprise; training entitlement; and the conditions under which temporary employment contracts may be terminated.

Dutch Unions Get Wage Increase with Employers’ Federation for Agency Workers

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While European trade unions on 29 September will manifest against government austerity programmes, German trade unions will use that day &ndash; and, and in fact, all of September and throughout the autumn &ndash; to oppose not only public-sector cuts but equally to vehemently condemn the ugly social dumping caused by the boom in temporary work. 
 
This stems from the DGB Congress last May, where the Congress made it a priority to campaign for equal pay, equal rights, and fixed probation periods before the exploited workers of the temporary sector are made permanent employees. Since that Congress, German unions have ramped up the political heat so much that the Christian-Democratic (CDU) Minister of Labour and Social Affairs, Ursula von der Leyen, has introduced a partial remedy in legislation that does address the downward spiral of wages brought on by more and more workers forced into temporary employment. 

But the legislation does not go far enough. 
 
Many of the major trade union affiliates of DGB, including IGBCE, IG Metall, and Ver.di, will emphasise this point in upcoming manifestations. The unions are also taking the issue into workplaces, both inside collective bargaining processes and at plant-gates in the form of protests. This month, IG Metall has introduced the &ldquo;equal pay for equal work&rdquo; principle in sector-wide negotiations in three German states. 
<img alt="" src="" width="202" height="101" />
DGB's Micheal Sommer
DGB President Michael Sommer said in the 6 September edition of newspaper Handelsblatt that German union members will abide by national laws prohibiting strikes over political issues, but &ldquo;workplace meetings and actions at plant gates&rdquo; to highlight temporary work as an abhorrent austerity measure in countering the financial crisis will occur. Sommer said this issue will also be heard loud and clear inside German work partnership structures as well. 
 
Von der Leyen&rsquo;s proposed legislation is called the &ldquo;Schlecker&rdquo; bill in reference to the large drug store chain that tried to sack all full-time workers and then re-hire them as contract employees at half their previous salaries. It would require &ldquo;equal pay for equal work&rdquo; to prevent wage dumping such as at Schlecker, with a fine of &euro;25,000 to offending businesses. 
 
But the legislation would fail to reverse the up-surge in temporary work because employers could still use short-term workers so long as they made equal payment for equal work. &ldquo;Schlecker&rdquo; also does not establish a time limit on when a temp worker must be made permanent, and it also does not include a set minimum wage for temporary workers, something that is a priority on the agenda of DGB and German unions. 
 
On average, temporary sector workers in Germany earn 30% less that full-time, permanent staff, DGB-affiliated unions have found.

Equal Rights for Temp Workers Becomes ‘Hot-Button’ in Germany

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The Trade Union Congress (TUC) of the UK released a new publication today, on International Women&rsquo;s Day. The magazine profiles, and gives voice to, prominent women trade unionists from around the world, specifically the global south. 
 
The TUC carries out considerable international solidarity work, much of this work in the global south focuses on women, as the publication explains &ldquo;whether they are in paid work or not, women make up an ever growing majority of the world&rsquo;s poor&rdquo;. 

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Hasmeya Muhsin
The ICEM is proud that their Executive Committee member Hashmeya Muhsin is one of the women to be profiled. Hashmeya, President of the Electricity Workers&rsquo; Union in Basra, Iraq, has been a key figure in the campaign for a new, fair labour law in Iraq. 
 
Hashmeya won the Dutch Human Rights Award, the FNV&rsquo;s prestigious Febe Elisabeth Velasquez Trade Union Award, in May 2009. The money awarded with this prize was used to fund the recent Social Security Campaign in Iraq, fighting for land, health, and equality reforms in the war-torn country. 
 
Putting herself under continuing personal risk, Hashmeya Muhsin is the first female trade union leader in Iraq, and one of the very few in the Arab-speaking world. 

<img alt="" src="" width="302" height="149" />
The publication also includes, among others, profiles of project coordinators against HIV/AIDS in Africa, a brave woman trade unionist from Zimbabwe, and of course Su Su Nway, the jailed trade unionist in Burma. 
 
View the publication <a href="http://www.tuc.org.uk/extras/raisingvoices.pdf">here</a>. 
 
Last week, a multi-GUF plus International Trade Union Congress (ITUC) letter was submitted to the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (UNCSW), in New York. The letter, addressed to Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon criticizes the process and substance of the Session, which has faced many disruptions and obstacles. View the letter <a href="/index.php?id=71&amp;la=EN&amp;doc=3656">here</a>. 
 
International Women&rsquo;s Day was established in 1910, when a Socialist Women&rsquo;s Congress in Copenhagen decided to embark on the annual day. The following year 1911 saw the first events marking the day, in four countries Austria, Germany, Switzerland, and Denmark.

UK TUC Releases Excellent Women Empowerment Publication

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